Impossible: A New Reality

Impossible: A New Reality is a single-level PWAD for Doom II, authored by JK and designed for ZDoom. It won an Escher Award at the 13th Cacowards ceremony.

The map uses Hexen II textures and Derek MacDonald (Afterglow)'s Plantation Mansion texture pack. It includes an original title screen music track by Tim Fewell, and the map itself uses a MIDI cover of "Black Rose" from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, sequenced by Saiyapimp.

Impossible: A New Reality was featured in Doomworld's Top 100 Most Memorable Maps, placing 87th.

Overview
You begin in a patio. The action takes place in an Old Mansion on lava. The automap shows no lines. The level is full of "impossible" architecture, for example stairs that go up infinitely but go down only once. The impossible architecture is constructed with the use of the silent teleport trick.

The map includes one custom monster, a variant of the cyberdemon that is described as "Mister Cyberdemon" when it kills you. Its attributes like health and speed are the same as the regular monster, but upon its death the yellow skull key is dropped.

Secrets

 * 1) Go downstairs after grabbing a shotgun near the start. While going down you will notice an angel mural on your left. You can walk through it to find an armor. (sector 464)
 * 2) From the blue door area, go back to the blue key area and try using the stone stairs on your left (while looking at the other side of this area). Upon stepping on the first step, you will hear something has just lowered. Run back to the previous arena, and press yourself on the nearest cacodemon alcove on your right (these alcoves open up after visiting the blue door area for the first time). After riding up, press the wall on your right to find six stimpacks. (sector 1721)
 * 3) Come back to the stone stairs mention in the previous secret. Drop down from their right side into the lava and then drop down further from a small hole in the lava. At the end of the passage, you will find a wall with a symbol on it. Press it. Behind it is the same area where you could find secret #2, but this time you will be facing the other cacodemon alcove. If you rush to this alcove from the other side, you will lower another narrow lift that will lead you there. From the alcove, press the wall on your left to reveal a backpack and another green armor.  (sector 1283)
 * 4) In the area with a pointing arrow, follow where it points, and you will notice a part of the wall with a demon head on a pentagram in front of you. Press it to open up a small room with a rocket launcher and a box of rockets inside. (sector 1731)
 * 5) In the big outdoor area with four blood fountains (it's right after the area with secret #4) you will find a soulsphere left from the lion-face switch. (sector 1792) To grab it, turn around while looking at the switch, and get closer to the set of wide pillars on your left. Take a closer look at the space between the third and the fourth furthest pillars. You will notice that the ground goes slightly deeper than the rest. Step on it to lower yourself. The corridor will eventually lead you to the soulsphere.
 * 6) In the area with the lava river (after the room with the switch puzzle), while facing the door across the switch that will raise the stone pillars, drop down to the lava, and run from your left. You will end up outside. Get closer to the part with a gray stone to find a megasphere in its center. (sector 2569)
 * 7) In the hall with mirrors and bookshelves (behind the left door after the blue door), you will notice that one of the bookshelves facing the wall looks brighter than the rest. Press it, turn back, and step on the narrow lift right across the bookshelf. At the top, press the symbol to reveal a small room with a megaarmor inside. (sector 2774) Be warned though; the narrow lift lowers only once.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on December 6, 2021.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: